A former human rights worker of Karapatan and her brother-in-law were illegally arrested, the son of a peasant leader was abducted, and human rights workers investigating rights abuses in Lopez, Quezon were surrounded by soldiers – all these were the most recent attacks against human rights defenders documented by Karapatan last week, from May 3 to 11, 2017.

Karapatan condemns these recent attacks against human rights defenders, as the climate of impunity worsens in the Philippines. While the Duterte administration has been busy promoting butcher generals to Cabinet posts, furthering the militarization of the civilian bureaucracy, human rights defenders and their families are experiencing graver forms of human rights violations,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

Amid the growing number of military generals holding top posts in the government bureaucracy, the proposed bill on the national ID system, which was recently approved by the House Committee on Population, is bound to lead to wholesale violation of people’s rights to freedom of movement and privacy, right against surveillance, and right to unhampered and non-discriminatory provision of social services.

Such proposed measures will legitimize the already existing violations of the rights of the people. Many activists and political dissenters were subjected to surveillance by the state. Worse, their names were listed in the so-called “order of battle” by the Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP) and other similar lists as part of the counter-insurgency program of the government. With the continuing spate of illegal arrests and detention of activists, we believe that this policy and practice continues to this day.

The Philippine government received a failing grade in the recently-concluded UN Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights in the Philippines held in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Despite attempts by the Philippine delegation to justify the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and to present a positive picture of its achievements on the political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people, most of the attending states still raised serious concerns on a host of human rights issues that remain unaddressed,” said Atty. Ephraim Cortez, co-head of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation to the Geneva event.

“The most recent
appointments of butcher-generals in the Duterte Cabinet furthers the
militarization of the civilian bureaucracy and, in addition to pro-US officials
and warmongers Delfin Lorenzana and Hermogenes Esperon, will inevitably result
to more militarist and fascist policies that disregard the rights and welfare
of peasant and indigenous communities,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina
Palabay said, on the recent appointments of Armed Forces of the Philippines
chiefs of staff Roy Cimatu and Eduardo Año, as new heads of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and of Interior and Local Government
(DILG).

The Lorenzo clan, among the
wealthiest landlords in the country who controls around 15,000 acres of land
across the Philippines, is refusing to distribute 145 hectares of land in
Madaum Village, Tagum City. The said land has been awarded by the government to
farm workers in 2015, its distribution to farmer-beneficiaries backed by orders
from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

“The Lorenzos, along with
State actors colluding to deny land distribution to farmer-beneficiaries, are
rights violators. They have not only denied the farmers what is due them, but
have killed and endangered the lives of the farmers," said Karapatan Secretary
General Cristina Palabay.

“Non-existent efforts to stop rights abuses
and outright lies by the Philippine government in its report for the third
cycle of the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights
Council gloss emphasize the reality that human and people’s rights violations
continue with impunity,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, on
the PH government report expected to be presented today, May 8, 2017, in
Geneva, Switzerland.

UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary Killings or
Arbitrary Executions, Ms. Agnes Callamard, recently made an unofficial visit to
the country and spoke in a forum about perspectives on drug policies at the
University of the Philippines on May 5, 2017.

“We agree with Ms. Callamard that the current policy on the war on
drugs is lacking in addressing the socio-economic causes of the illegal drug
trade. Policy alternatives should be explored to formulate programs which
prioritizes people’s rights, framed within the structural causes of poverty.
The ongoing peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
is a platform to formulate comprehensive social, economic and political
reforms, including those in relation to this problem,” said Karapatan Secretary
General Cristina Palabay.

“The Philippines’ State report for the third cycle of the
Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council
demonstrate the government’s empty rhetoric on human and people’s rights.
Impunity still remains, rights abuses continue, no one has been held to account
for the violations and justice remains elusive for the victims,” said Cristina
Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, on the PH government report expected to
be presented on May 8, 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland.

“I am here for justice. The
families of those killed cannot all be here, but we all want the same thing.
State security forces should know that they cannot readily commit crimes
without punishment. We live in a poor community in Basilan, and just because we
are poor should not mean that those with resources can easily deprive us of the
justice that we deserve,” said Nurhidaya Hasan, wife of Moro leader Hadji
Billamin Hassan, who filed a complaint against the Government of the Philippines
(GRP) at the GRP-NDFP Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) with regard to the
killing of her husband, as well as two others on March 8, 2017.

"Despite the
anti-torture and anti-enforced disappearance laws, illegal arrest, torture and
detention continue, as exemplified in the recent discovery of a secret police
detention cell in Tondo, with unlisted detainees, in line with the war on drugs.
This practice is reminiscent of brutal acts
by military and police during martial law and even after martial law,
when regimes perpetuate a system that grossly disregards civil rights,"
said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay on the discovery of a "secret
prison" in a police station in Tondo, Manila.